A court in Buenos Aires City has found a former Buenos Aires Province police officer and a former Army lieutenant guilty of crimes against humanity, sentencing them to serve at least 25 years in jail.
Néstor Ciaramella and Enrique José Del Pinowere handed sentences of life imprisonment and 25 years’ imprisonment respectively for their involvement in crimes perpetrated at the former clandestine detention centre known as “Puente 12” in La Matanza.
Both were found guilty of having perpetrated kidnappings, torture, disappearances, murder, sexual abuse and other crimes against humanity against 185 individuals between 1974 and 1977.
The historic verdict was announced last Friday by Federal Criminal Court No. 6 of Buenos Aires.
Ciaramella, a former police officer, received the maximum penalty possible under law, while Del Pino, a former lieutenant from the Army’s Intelligence Battalion 601, received a sentence of 25 years.
However, former provincial police officers Ángel Salerno and Carlos Alberto Tarantino, as well as former captain Walter Roque Minod, were acquitted and given the benefit of the doubt.
Those decisions were questioned by various human rights groups.
The court, led over by Daniel Obligado and also comprising judges Sabrina Namer and Ignacio Carlos Fornari, read the sentence to a jam-packed courtroom, underlining the level of interest such cases continue to generate in Argentina.
Grounds for the ruling will be disclosed on November 26, the court said.
Ciaramella was found guilty of being a direct participant in aggravated homicide in 22 cases.
He was also found to be a co-perpetrator in the crime of unlawful confinement, aggravated by the use of violence and threats, in a total of 163 cases, out of which 30 had aggravating circumstances as they lasted over a month.
In their ruling, the judges highlighted that “the torture inflicted in some cases resulted in the death of the victims.”
Del Pino, in turn, was sentenced as co-perpetrator of unlawful confinement and torture to the detriment of 51 people, out of which 18 cases were considered aggravated given the length of detention.
On the other hand, the court acquitted Salerno, Tarantino and Minod, even though the prosecution had requested life imprisonment for the first two and a 15-year sentence for the third.
The decision to acquit was based on “not having achieved the degree of certainty required in this instance,” the court explained.
During the trial, the prosecution was represented by counsel from an expert unit specialising in human rights violations. Lawyers Esteban Bendersky and Viviana Sánchez, together with federal prosecutor María Ángeles Ramos, highlighted the “systematic” nature of the repression at Puente 12, which began in the years of violence that preceded the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
Puente 12, which operated out of the “Cattle Theft Division” of the Buenos Aires Province Police Force, is an emblematic site that highlights the abuses committed by the police and security forces during the political violence of the seventies.
Before delivering its rulings, the court denied a motion by defence teams to dismiss criminal proceedings due to the statute of limitations.
“The nature of the crimes against humanity in the events under trial” was cited as the grounds to reject those motions, including those which intended to question the validity of amnesty laws issued after the return to democracy.
The court took further action to guarantee the protection of victims and historical memory.
It ordered that transcripts be digitalised to make reparation petitions easier and issued an official letter to the Justice Ministry calling on it to compile material related to trials over human rights violations.
– TIMES/PERFIL
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